As Michael Cuddyer Walks Away, He Cites ‘Aches and Pains’

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The Mets' Michael Cuddyer, who announced his retirement on Saturday, even though he had a year remaining on his Mets contract.

By Tim Rohan

Dec. 12, 2015

Four days after the Mets’ season ended, Michael Cuddyer had surgery to repair a core muscle injury, and in the following days he started thinking about retirement. His first season with the Mets had been marred by knee and wrist injuries. Over the last four years, he had missed nearly 40 percent of his teams’ regular-season games because of injury.

Cuddyer, 36, announced his retirement on Saturday in an essay for The Players’ Tribune, even though he had a year remaining on his Mets contract.

“It wasn’t just the D.L. stints,” Cuddyer said in a conference call with reporters on Saturday. “It’s the aches and pains every player goes through over the course of 162 games. They started to get harder to come back from. They started to get tougher to rehab. It started to get harder to get into the gym to strength train because you have all these aches and pains going on. It’s hard to overcome those.”

The Mets signed Cuddyer to a two-year, $21 million deal in November 2014, hoping he would be a middle-of-the-order hitter and provide leadership in the clubhouse. An old friend of Mets third baseman David Wright’s, Cuddyer was widely respected by his teammates and coaches. Midseason, he created a ceremony in which the player of the game was awarded a pro-wrestling-style championship belt.

But his output was largely disappointing, in part because of his injuries. In 117 games, he had a .259 batting average with 10 home runs. By August, the fast-rising rookie Michael Conforto had supplanted Cuddyer in left field. Even so, Cuddyer, a two-time All-Star and the 2013 National League batting champion with Colorado, accepted his diminished role without complaint, setting an example for his young teammates.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was a highly successful season,” Cuddyer said, because the Mets reached the World Series.

With Conforto’s emergence, the Mets would have had no logical place to play Cuddyer next season, even though he was set to make about $12.5 million. Asked if the Mets had bought out a portion of his contract — presumably to make it easier for Cuddyer to walk away — Cuddyer declined to say.

Cuddyer’s decision could have ramifications for the Mets’ off-season plans. After acquiring Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera last week, without adding too much to their payroll, the Mets still want to add a left-handed-hitting center fielder, a few relief pitchers and, perhaps, a starter. Without Cuddyer, who ended his career with a .277 batting average and 197 home runs, the Mets have more financial flexibility.

“In handling this situation, the Mets were first class the whole way,” Cuddyer said when asked about a buyout. “This is obviously a unique situation that nobody foresaw coming.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page SP8 of the New York edition with the headline: As Cuddyer Walks Away, He Cites Injuries Along With ‘Aches and Pains’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe